In a conventional technique, when an image of a desired portion of a subject is obtained by using a medical image diagnosis apparatus such as an X-ray CT apparatus or a magnetic resonance apparatus, an image of the whole of a subject or a fluoroscopic image (scanogram) of the subject is first formed along the body axis of the subject and a scanogram image 20 is displayed on a monitor, as shown in FIG. 5.
In ordinary cases, an imaging condition setting frame for designating an imaging protocol and imaging conditions is separately provided in a window provided on a screen on which the scanogram image 20 is displayed or on a touch panel provided separately from the screen. Conditions for imaging are set in this frame. Ordinarily, depending on the position to be imaged, a list of frequently-used protocols registered in advance is shown, for example, from Protocol Name 100 shown in FIG. 6, and a required protocol in the list is selected. For example, when Protocol Name 100 in FIG. 6 is selected, a pull-down menu 101 shown in FIG. 7 appears. If a mark 102 corresponding to “(Y number of) cervical vertebrae” in the pull-down menu 101 is pointed, the corresponding protocol is selected and indicated in Protocol Name 100 in FIG. 6.
Protocols are displayed as shown in FIG. 7 to enable selection therefrom. After a protocol has been selected in this way, details of scan conditions may be changed. In such a case, a change is made by designating a selection button shown in FIG. 6. For example, the slice thickness can be changed to 5 mm by selecting “5 mm slice thickness”. After imaging conditions have been determined as described above, an imaging preparation button 103 is pressed and a gantry thereby starts rotating. When steady rotation is attained, preparations for imaging are completed. If a start button is pressed after the completion of preparations for imaging, imaging is started by radiating X-rays according to the above-described imaging conditions.
When the above-described imaging conditions are input, a frame 21A indicating a scan area and a plurality of lines 21B indicating slice intervals are displayed according to the selected conditions, as shown in FIG. 5. Such imaging condition designation methods are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 9-313476 and 8-103440.
In such a conventional medical image diagnosis apparatus, imaging conditions such as an imaging position and area, a certain number of instances of image reconstruction and image reconstruction positions can be changed by using the frame 21A and lines 21B. In a case where a certain number of instances of imaging and image reconstruction (scan area) is set such that the whole of an internal organ is covered, an external operating device such as a mouse is used for setting. More specifically, a pointer is set to the frame 21A and dragged to increase or reduce the size of the frame 21A, thereby changing the number of instances of imaging and image reconstruction. After imaging conditions have been set in the above-described manner, imaging of tomographic images is performed according to the set imaging conditions.
However, the frame and lines displayed on the scanogram image to indicate imaging conditions correspond to the actual scan area, imaging and image reconstruction positions and angle, and so on, and there is a problem described below. In a case where a plurality of imaging conditions (e.g., the condition for imaging of (Y number of) cervical vertebrae in the figure) is designated according to a protocol selection such as shown in FIG. 7 or in a case where imaging of one portion is performed a certain number of times (for example, in a case where imaging is performed before and after injection of a contrast medium), the frames and lines corresponding to imaging performed the certain number of times are displayed in a superposed state. When one of the frames, lines and so on corresponding to one of the imaging conditions which the operator wishes to change is directly operated with the mouse to change the imaging condition, there is a possibility of some of the other imaging lines, frames and so on existing at a nearby position being inadvertently operated.
There is another problem that a substantially long time is therefore required for setting of imaging conditions and the operation efficiency is reduced.